A Pirate's Christmas
by DarkShine07
Summary: My version of Christmas on the Black Pearl. Bet you never thought it could snow in the Caribbean. [Oneshot] [JxE]


**A/N: Just thought you all could use a Christmas story, better than that, a Pirate Christmas story. **

A thin sheet of snow laid over the flowing waters of the ocean and covered the decks of the _Pearl _as she floated in place, frozen in place because of the iced over waters. Cold crewmen hustled about onboard the ship, trying to keep the entire ship become freezing. As we all know, pirate ships didn't have heating systems, so everyone was terribly uncomfortable. All the supplies would be frozen and useless if the _Pearl _didn't sail on its way soon. Even a few people could die from the extreme temperatures.

"I've never seen anything like this before, Captain." Mr. Gibbs declared, glancing out over the frozen ocean of ice.

Jack Sparrow looked at it all with disgust. "Aye, mate. This is bad. Very bad."

A feminine figure walked up on deck, clinging to herself and her teeth chattered in a vain attempt to keep warm. Her eyes widened as she saw that the ocean had frozen over.

"It must've just happened over night then." Gibbs stated, his eyes still traveling along the vastness of the ice.

"How could that be, hmm? I had one of those cabin guys keeping the ship moving throughout the night." Jack opposed.

"Well, maybe perhaps he fell asleep on the job."

Jack shook his head, not seeing what else could've caused the trouble.

The feminine figure spoke up, "Well, we might as well make the best of this."

Jack turned, "What _is _the best of this!?"

"You don't have to yell." She smirked. "Look, it's going to be Christmas in a few days…we could go over to that island way over there and get a tree to bring back to the ship-"

"Christmas…well as much as I'd love to celebrate Christmas, we have a bit of a problem here and- wait. Did you say island?" Jack asked, confused.

Elizabeth nodded. "It's right over there…" she pointed, "Men. They never take the time to actually look at their surroundings."

Jack wasn't listening anymore, his eyes had found the island not far off in the distance and they were sparkling.

"Gibbs, get a group of men ready to go over to the island. Maybe there is food out there…" Jack ordered.

Gibbs was gone in an instance and talking to all the crewmembers he could see.

Elizabeth watched and then looked at Jack again. "We're getting a tree too, aren't we?"

"I don't see why. It'll just cause a waste of time when we could be searching for food."

"We can get a tree after we search for food." Elizabeth suggested.

Jack turned and met her gaze. He felt some of his worry melt away at the calmness in her eyes and smiled. "Sure."

Elizabeth thanked him and then walked closer to the railing of the _Pearl_. The bitter cold was starting to get to her. "I should've gotten off at Port Royal." She muttered to herself. The _Pearl _had sailed right past the bay of Port Royal only a few days ago when they had heard of a blizzard on the way. Usually ice storms didn't occur in the tropics, but this was one of those strange, bizarre exceptions to the norm.

Gibbs had assembled a group of five men and was talking to Jack when Elizabeth turned back around and started paying attention again. From what she heard it sounded as if they men weren't planning on letting her come along, which was what she had intended to do all the while.

"I'm going too." She declared.

Jack and Gibbs turned their heads while the other five men just stood, not caring about her.

"I don't think so." Jack said to Elizabeth.

"I'm perfectly capable of going." She retorted stubbornly.

"You look a little chilly if you ask me." Jack pointed out.

"Well, I didn't ask you." Elizabeth replied. "I'm going and you can't stop me."

Jack sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Your funeral."

"Well, if that's how it's gonna be, let us go." Gibbs said, ending the brief feud and starting to climb over the edge of the _Pearl. _

Jack followed after him and then the five men and last of all, Elizabeth. They walked across the frozen ocean, careful to avoid thin spots and holes where the ice had caved in, revealing the freezing water below.

The frozen sand of the island was welcoming to the pirates when they finally stepped ashore. It felt comforting to be on solid ground once again. Elizabeth bent over and cracked the ice covering the sand with her fingers and touched the cool beads of sand to her hand. She sighed in comfort. As the men walked on to search for any food she stayed behind and started looking for a good tree. Of course she didn't expect to find a nice evergreen pine tree or spruce, but she thought a small palm tree would be just perfect for a pirate Christmas tree. She walked along the shore, glancing at the spread out palms, a sheet of snow on their fronds. None of them seemed to capture her as she wanted a tree to do. They all seemed too big or too small, or maybe even too green. Some didn't have long enough fronds, some too long. It was more difficult than one would think. Elizabeth sighed in frustration. She had almost walked around the whole of the island and still no tree suited her. She was beginning to think she should just give up. Oh but then she saw it. The most wonderful palm tree on the whole island. Its fronds were just long enough, just green enough, it was the perfect height, and it had the best curved slump that a palm tree could have. It was perfect. But where were those other pirates? Elizabeth looked around. She had gone pretty far now and she had forgotten where they had gone off to. She decided to sit and wait for them, so she slumped down and leaned against her perfect tree's bark. The iced ground was cold to her bottom and made her shiver, her eyes blinking against the cold.

//--//--//--//

"Good, that's enough food for the entire ship." Gibbs said, looking at the rabbits and other small animals the crew had collected.

"Hard to believe that all those animals came from the same island." Jack said, also glancing at everyone's cache.

"Well, let's go back to the _Pearl _now, we have our food." Gibbs said.

Everyone shuffled back to the frozen sandy beach and looked for the ship out on the frozen ocean.

"There it is." One of the five men said, and they all started out over the ice with their food and towards the ship.

"I'll stay back and wait for Elizabeth." Jack declared, handing his own cache to Gibbs as the other man shrugged and walked after the five crewmembers.

"Now where could that silly girl be?" Jack said, looking over the island's tree line.

He walked along the beach, and looked for Elizabeth but to no avail. "That woman walks too much." He muttered. He was about to turn around when he thought he could see a white figure sitting amongst the trees. He headed off to that figure to find that Elizabeth had fallen asleep in the cold beside a wondrous palm tree. Jack thought he could see how it happened. "I'll get the tree later." He said, picking Elizabeth up. She was too cold to leave any longer, and plus, how would Jack carry both Elizabeth and a tree back to the _Pearl_? It was obvious that Elizabeth was too cold right now to be left, so he had to take her back.

//--//--//--//

Elizabeth woke up in a warm cot with three blankets strewn upon her cold body. Her eyes flickered a second and then she sat up. She could vaguely remember that she had fallen asleep out on the island, but nothing else. Her room was warmer than outside, but still everything was cold. She gazed around and then her eyes fell upon one thing in particular. A palm tree was placed inside her room, a beautiful palm tree that sparked her memory and made her smile.

The door opened and in came Jack with another blanket, and a cooked rabbit.

"Oh goody, you're awake." He said.

Elizabeth smiled warmly at him. "Thank you."

"It was the least I could do." Jack replied, laying the blanket over her and setting the plate of rabbit on her nightstand.

They smiled at eachother for a few seconds and then Jack leaned over and kissed her cold lips.

"Merry Christmas."


End file.
